The IPCC investigate all police actions that result in a discharge of arms by officers. All the officers who carry arms are aware of this before they are equipped with tazers or guns.
We should be proud that our police officers are always held to account when they use weapons against members of the public. This level of scrutiny is designed to give us confidence that officers are not trigger happy and that tragic mistakes, like the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, are as rare as possible.
Given the latest information of the events, without the gratuitous tazering, and the knifeman being an mentally ill resident looking for a showdown, rather than a common car thief then I'm happy to comment that shooting to kill seemed a reasonable final response by the police in this instance.
If further details come out, and it turns out we have whole new set of circumstances, then it is fair enough if a whole new set of conclusions have to be drawn. It is a forum and we debate with the details we have at the time.
But as it stands it seems a pretty good and lucky ending, with no police casualties, and the guy somehow alive and getting treatment.
Phew finally.
Certainly sounds a pretty complex case, and one that could have ended far worse.
Hopefully this puts all the conspiracy theories to bed, for a while at least.
In the meantime I hope Mr Asare gets the help he needs.
I have continued to ask the IPCC about their report on the incident in February 2011. Below is the response I have received so far.
The investigation has completed however we are not yet in a position to publish the report.
....
The IPCC have not yet issued any public statement at the conclusion of this investigation. The matter is connected with a second investigation looking into some of the post incident handling of the incident and it had been hoped that the two matters would be reported on together, however the second investigation has suffered some unexpected delays.
I have alerted the Commissioner responsible for the first investigation to the issue and it will be a matter for her as to whether she decides to put something out publicly now or wait for the second investigation to conclude. I hope to have a conversation with her this week and provide you with an update in due course.
I have little reason to believe that the police acted inappropriately, but it is important that the IPCC investigates and reports publicly on their findings.